A CACO officer is assigned by the Department of Defense to assist the families of ill, injured, or deceased members.
Designate a trusted family member or friend as an advocate and have them gather as much information as possible. We suggest purchasing a digital recorder to record conversations. Ask for permission to record if you're in a two party consent state.
Have your advocate collect:
Demand a civilian autopsy, genetic testing, and pathology. During the autopsy. the medical examiner will take photographs, document any trauma, disease, or unusual physical characteristics. Samples of fluids and tissues will be obtained for microscopic, toxicological and genetic testing.
Research potential lawyers. There are law firms that are experts in the Feres Doctrine and NDAA. These lawyers are specialists in military malpractice and negligence.
Ask your family, trusted friends, or lawyer (if retained) their advice if you are contacted by the media.
You will begin to receive letters from elected officials and other official correspondence. To save time and reduce headaches, put them in chronological order and place in a safe spot.
The investigation typically takes several months. When reading through, there might be terms (military, medical, etc.) you are unfamiliar with. Ask friends in law enforcement, ex-military, or with a medical background to help or answer any questions.
Now that you have a clear timeline of events and have the official investigative report, now is the time to dig deeper by requesting Government documents with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
You can request as many FIOA documents as you would like. By law, each request is permitted 2 hours of research and the first 200 pages are free. Additional paid hours of research are available.
BY LAW: The FOIA request should be completed within 20 days. Occasionally. some requests might take up to 30 days - if so, follow up.
Additional Tips:
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